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Accolades

“This is good news for Massachusetts wine enthusiasts, who will now be able to purchase wines they currently don’t have access to,” said Robert Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine. “This is also good news for Massachusetts in general since it will mean new revenues.”

"Robert P. Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine at thewww.wellesleywinepress.com, calls the state’s liquor laws bizarre and favors a wider availability of wine. For consumers, it would be more convenient to be able to buy wine at a supermarket while shopping for food, he said."

“You have this strange exclusion of wine, which in Europe is considered a grocery item,” said Mr. Dwyer. “Here it’s considered the demon rum.”

"trying to predict the annual Wine of the Year is a popular parlor game among enophiles. This year, blogger Wellesley Wine Press held a contest, with New York wine retailer Grapes the Wine Co. awarding a prize of a Kindle Fire e-reader to the first commenter to correctly guess this year's top wine before it was announced. Unfiltered was impressed with the number of Top 10 wines prognosticated by Wellesley's readers. "Senelwine" guessed Château de St.-Cosme Gigondas 2009, our No. 10 wine, "Mike M" guessed Quinta do Vallado Touriga Nacional Douro 2008, our No. 7 wine, "James Z" guessed Baer Ursa Columbia Valley 2008, our No. 6 wine, and "RichardPF" nailed it, winning the Kindle, and the respect of his wine-loving peers. Looks like Wellesley's readers know their wine."

The Chicago Tribune's Bill Daley mentioned the site in Rosé: A wine for more seasons. I said "For me, they're like pumpkin spice coffee drinks: best enjoyed early in the season". Bill alsogave the site a shout-out for a piece the Capitol Case Clubcontributed about restaurant wine service. I thought it was a great example of how print wine writers can effectively engage wine bloggers.

I submitted a piece on Shady Shelf Talkers to Palate Press that was published in its inaugural edition.

This site has been ranked as high as the #1 on PostRank. PostRank dynamically ranks the "influence" of blogs and individual posts within each blog. Read more about how PostRank works in an interview I did with them here. Have a look at this picture from a high water mark for the WWP:

And even though Roger Clemens stabs his radio with a syringe whenever he hears us say it, this is NPR: National Public Radio."

The Boston Globe's website has been linking to my recent entries as part of their expanded local coverage includingWellesley. I truly appreciate that as it has driven a lot of local traffic to this site.

It was really nice of Thomas Matthews, Executive Editor of Wine Spectator to leave a comment and then check back and answer some questions I had. Awesome guy! Check it out here. And here.

Thanks to The Boston Globe for including The Wellesley Wine Press in their list of local blogs in the Food & Drink section. Check it out here.

The Wellesley Wine Press was just added tohttp://wine.alltop.com. Alltop is an interesting topical take on sorting through the best sites on the Internet- check it out and see which sites are listed for topics you're most interested in.

Friday, January 7, 2011

Owner and Winemaker Renato Cigliuti

Yesterday, I announced the 2005 Cigliuti Barbaresco Serraboella as the 2010 Wellesley Wine Press wine of the year. In prior years I'd named domestic Pinot Noirs as my wine of the year so it wasn't too difficult to track down winery representatives to answer a few questions. However, this year's winner comes from the Piedmont region in Italy. Luckily it wasn't difficult to reach Renato Cigliuti's daughter Claudia for a response to these questions:

Q: I've heard there are "traditionalist" and "modernist" style producers in Barbaresco. Does that terminology exist in Italy? If so, which camp does Cigliuti fall within? If not, could you describe your winemaking style?

Cigliuti: The "modernist" and "traditionalist" style are not very popular any more in Italy, like in the past...in the 90's. In our opinion the most important thing to make a great wine is to have the best quality grapes and a good balance in oak.

Q: I've enjoyed both your Vigne Erte and Serraboella Barbaresco wines. They're both such powerful and pure expressions of Barbaresco. Could you describe the differences in site and winemaking style between these two wines?

Cigliuti: The main difference between Barbaresco Vigne Erte and Serraboella is due to the age of the vines. In the Vigne Erte the vines are about 10 years old while in Serraboella the age of the vines is from 25 to 55 years old. The old vines give more complexity, intensity, structure and length to the wine but both of them reflect very well the character of the terrain where they come from.

In fact Vigne Erte is located on the cru of Bricco di Neive (350 meters above sea level) and faces Southwest with sandy and calcareous soil. Serraboella is located on the cru of Serraboella (350 meters above sea level) faces Southwest with chalky soil.

The winemaking style between Vigne Erte and Serraboella is almost the same, very balanced in oak. They are aged for about 25 months in 2000 Lt Slavonian oak casks, only a small percentage of Serraboella is also aged in French oak barriques and tonneaux.

Q: What would you say is the best time of year for an American to visit Piedmont wineries?

Cigliuti: In our opinion the best period to visit Piedmont wineries is beginning of September because at that time it is possible to understand and evaluate the quality of the wines from the grapes left in the vineyards. It is very important to see the way of managing the vineyards and the yields we leave to have a good quality wine. Also October is interesting because the vineyards are very colourfull and you can also smell the parfums of the fermentation in the cellar.

Q: Do you offer winery visits and tastings with an appointment scheduled via E-mail? If so, what should we expect on a visit to Cigliuti?

Cigliuti: We accept visits by appointment (because only the family is involved in all kind of works of the estate) and it's always a pleasure to receive visitors and show our philosophy of making wines. They should expect a simple visit to a very small estate (7 Hectares) where the family will receive them and show all the process of making wine starting from the vineyards to enjoying a glass of wine together. Cheers!

My thanks to Claudia Cigliuti for her kind and thoughtful response to my questions, and congratulations to Cigliuti on their outstanding wines.

I hope you enjoyed reading my top 25 list as much as I enjoyed writing it.